I See What You Meme

Me playing with Thomas in one of his last shows. Today I awoke to unimaginable news.  Thomas George, one of my fellow ComedySportz players and friends, died in his sleep last night.  Thomas was just a little bit younger than me.  I played in his last ComedySportz show on Friday night.  We were supposed to play together last night as well.  He never showed up at the theater.  I am shocked and sad.  Although I have mentioned ComedySportz (CSZ) a few times on my blog , I have never really talked about the impact it has had on my life in just one short year.  Roger and I stumbled upon CSZ through a Richmond Mom fundraiser.  We were invited by Kate Hall to participate as "guest performers" in November 2011.  We had such a good time with the two-day event, we decided to audition for the major league troupe last January.   I had no idea that we would make it into the troupe.  We really went to the auditions on a lark. ...

I look forward to listening to my podcasts every week.  During my time in the car, I catch up on a variety of news programs with topics ranging from the arts and culture to politics and religion.   I have learned so much from the Planet Money team . If you haven't checked out their stories on NPR or the stories they do in conjunction with the PRI program This American Life , you are missing out.  Planet Money covers topics from "Should we use a dollar bill or coin?" to "How did the United States get into a housing crisis?" With their stories, I have gained new insight into topics that are barely brushed over in most other media outlets.  One of the most important things I have learned is that any  current problem our country is experiencing related to money is complicated.  There is no quick fix. There is no easy answer. Yes, most of the causes of monetary problems come down to greed. However, finding a solution that works for everyone without major di...

There has been a lot of emotion in my most recentposts .  I thought it was time for a change of pace.  With that in mind, today’s post is a list. Who doesn’t love a list? It’s easy to read, straight to the point, and all the hip kids are making lists these days.  Today I’m going to share my top five celebrity BFFs.  Admit it.  You’ve made this list in your head before.  No, I’m not talking about “The List” .  That’s different.  We might share that on another day.  So, in no particular order, these are the five celebrities who I wish were on my speed dial.  If the agents or publicists of these celebrities (or the lovely ladies themselves) are reading this, I promise that I’m not a crazy stalker.  I’d just love to grab a cup of coffee with them someday.  Mindy Kaling I just finished reading Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?  It was a refreshing celebrity memoir.  It’s almost an anti-me...

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green My rating: 5 of 5 stars I tread lightly when venturing into "terminal disease" territory when it comes to books, movies , or TV shows. I approach the work (regardless of the medium) with more than a bit of caution. I don't want something that will be schmaltzy or emotionally manipulative. I don't want anything that shies away from the truth. More importantly, I'm worried that the story will resonate so clearly, it will upset me emotionally . With all of this in mind, I dug in to The Fault in our Stars with some degree of cautious optimism. I had heard Scott Simon's interview with John Green on Weekend Edition one Saturday and bought the book the following week. Green quotes the book in his interview, stating, "There is only one thing in this world [worse] than biting it from cancer when you're sixteen, and that's having a kid who bites it from cancer." With that quote, I understood fairly well that...

As a rule, I'm not a weepy person.  I have my moments.  We all do.  There are certain topics ( favorite Charlotte memories ) or commercials ( Damn you, St. Judes! ) that push me over the edge from time to time but I am not, by nature, a person who cries easily.  Except when it comes to music.  I have always thought it was my connection to music as a musician  that made me feel the emotion more closely than others.  There are certain songs (we will get to that in a moment) that are guaranteed to trigger the tears, regardless of the time, date, or setting.  I always figured, "Well, maybe it's me." It turns out that it's NOT me. There is actually some science  behind the weepy triggers in music.  A recent article in the Wall Street Journal    explained this phenomenon, highlighting Adele's music as a prime example of the powerful emotions a well-crafted tune can bring.   On the Media covered the same story and gav...

This Sunday, the finale for Season 2 of Downton Abbey will air on PBS.  If you haven't yet discovered this work of historical fiction from across the pond, go watch Season 1 on Netflix right now.  Then you will be ready to catch up with Season 2.  There are a few episodes available streaming on the PBS website but you can't find the whole season there.  (Interestingly, Season 2 is already available on DVD so I guess some chaps already know how the finale will play out...) I love it when a story completely captures your attention like Downton Abbey  has for me.  It's got everything I love about Mad Men set 45 years earlier...in England.  In fact, if you ever watched Mad Men and thought, "Wow! We sure have come a long way since the 1960s!" your mind will be completely  blown by the class structure and social hierarchy of English society in the early 20th century.  They were just so darn...proper.    Even though it is a proper B...

So here we are on the penultimate day of the year. I survived the Christmas holiday . I even went to church. More on that in a future post (possibly). The last week or so has been a wonderful combination of relaxing and productive. I admit that I haven't blogged much but I've been busy with other projects at home.   In thinking about the close of the year, I considered a collection of lists. I've been enjoying all the other Top 10 Lists populating the Internet these days but when I considered my own, I felt horribly inadequate. I've only seen from 1/3 to 1/2 of the movies that people are talking about on their 10 best list. I don't think I even saw 10 movies in the theater this year. I wouldn't be a good authority on movies. I've read a lot of books this year but I've already reviewed those books on my blog . You can always find me on Goodreads to get an idea of what I liked or didn't like.  Music. Well, I listen to a lot of music and my tast...

In an effort to lighten the mood after that last post , this week's Follow Friday is going to focus on the funny side. We're not, however, going to talk about slapstick or dry wit or Smurfs.  No, folks, we're going to the darker side of funny. These bits of pop culture are most definitely Not Suitable for Work .  But they're hilarious. At least, I think they are. Roger and I recently discovered the cartoon Archer . It airs on FX and is currently in its second season. The first season is now streaming on Netflix. What is Archer? Imagine if a James Bond movie and The Office had a baby. Sterling Archer is secret agent for Isis. He's suave, handsome, and a bit of a letch. Ok, he's a HUGE letch. He's also not that great at his job. While he's off trying to save the world, the rest of the office crew from the comptroller to the tech geeks to the HR director get into the kind of office hi-jinks that only a spy agency could procure. There's sex, dru...

With our discussion around Mad Men still "on the brain" I thought I would share some favorite advertising campaigns that I have seen recently.  In the culturally creative category, we have Target's latest coupon mailer. Have you seen this? Haiku-pons! Genius! Each page of coupons consists of three panels and each panel contains a haiku for an advertised product. For example, near a coupon for cheese we have: If that weren't enough, the detachable coupons are interchangeable so you can make your own original haikus with distinct meanings. Check out some of my original creations: Saucy, eh? I think I just entered Haiku Nirvana Before I show the next ad, I will run the disclaimer that I am not a Wal-Mart fan. I don't shop there and I will never shop there if another option is available. This commercial, however, made me laugh out loud. Bravo, Martin Agency . Finally, while it's not a recent advertising campaign, I would have to say tha...

For this week's Follow Friday, my first inclination was to talk about Harry Potter.  Because...well...it's time for THE END. Then I changed my mind because if you're not already a fan of Harry at this point, I have 3 things to say: 1. What planet have you been living on for the past decade? 2. What's wrong with you? 3. If you haven't become a fan by now, there is no hope. Unless you're under the age of 10. So...moving on. The Emmy nominations were announced to day and I am beyond excited that my favorite TV show, Mad Men , has received 19 nominations! If you haven't checked out this show, now is your chance to catch up on 4 seasons of fabulous television. All 4 seasons are currently available on DVD. In addition, you can catch selected reruns on AMC or on many OnDemand cable systems. It's also available on iTunes. Season 5 should have started this month but some contract negotiations delayed the plans for the upcoming season. We'll get more Mad ...

This week, we are getting rid of our cable and I couldn't be happier. Of all the amenities of life, cable is one that I can certainly live without. In fact, out of the last 14 years, we've only had cable for about half of that time. We never got cable when we lived in Boone, NC. In fact, we weren't able to get any TV.  We lived in the mountains and the closest television stations were over 100 miles away so if you didn't have cable or a strong roof-top aerial, TV was not an option. I was in graduate school so I didn't have much time for television anyway. If I wanted to watch something, I went to a friend's house or had them tape it. Yeah, on a VCR. Remember those? When we moved back to Fredericksburg, we made do for a while with a basic antenna but reception was (again) spotty so at some point we bought the bullet and had basic cable for about a year or so.  Then we bought our house in Ashland and local channels again became an available option. As new home...

My job requires me to drive quite a bit on a daily basis. My time in the car on a given day can range from 60 minutes to almost three hours. I don't mind the driving but I definitely need something to occupy my time. I've tried books on tape (or CD) and I find them distracting. I really just need to READ if I'm going to enjoy a book. I do, however, love listening to podcasts. If you haven't jumped on the podcast bandwagon, this week's Follow Friday is for you!  First of all, if you've never heard of podcasts, they're basically radio shows archived and available for download on iTunes or on various websites. Many podcasts are archived editions of radio shows heard elsewhere. Some have never hit the radio waves but are produced by everyone from celebrities to your average Joe or Jane with a microphone and some basic sound editing equipment. The best thing about subscribing to a podcast in iTunes is that new episodes will download automatically to your comput...

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I know that I'm suffering from penis fatigue. It's a sad day when the lead stories on the national news all seem to involve men and their  sexual escapades (DSK...Weiner...Edwards....Schwarzenegger...you get the drift).  Surely, there must be something else to talk about. It's hard to believe, considering the coverage that CNN (and other news organizations) gave to the Weiner story just yesterday. I was sitting in a diner with cable news playing in the background and I am pretty sure that 90% of the screen time during my hour (or so) at lunch revolved around the build-up of the lead-up to the announcement that Weiner was going to announce that he was planning to decide that he was announcing that his next big decision was to decide THAT HE WOULD RESIGN his office.* (* yes, that sentence was purposely rambling. No, I have not completely lost my ability to write a coherent sentence.) So in case you are finding it difficult stay...

     "Chimpanzees and orangutans may be capable of very limited forms of imitation, but only humans are capable of the kind of widespread and general imitation that...leads to memetic evolution."  --Dr. Susan Blackmore in The Evolution of Meme Machines "Bad artists copy. Good artists steal." -- Picasso " Imitation is the sincerest flattery" -- C.C. Colton "Stealing from one source is plagiarism.  Stealing from many sources is research."              -- Wilson Mizner....or Joseph Cummings Chase...or Steven Wright or....? As humans, we are drawn to create.  It also seems to be an innately human behavior to take someone's creation and do whatever we can to make it our own.   In this way, we form our culture.  In this way, we spread our memes.  Memes are born They spread through simple contagion.  We blog about them.  Repeatedly .    ...